


Menagerie

by TheFreakWithTheWings



Series: Side Effects [4]
Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Gen, Kidnapping, Sebastian has trouble with emotions, mentions of child abuse, surprise parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-16
Updated: 2014-05-16
Packaged: 2018-01-25 08:31:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1641581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFreakWithTheWings/pseuds/TheFreakWithTheWings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of what Sebastian did after he left the New York Institute and who he helped.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Menagerie

Sebastian was fighting really hard not to give in to his homicidal urges. 

After all, how hard was it to stay inside at night. He had thought threatening Duckling with vampires would have kept her inside, but she had proven him wrong. And then she had actually gotten kidnapped by vampires.

He hadn’t actually gone to Africa like he’d fooled the Clave into believing. For one, that was too expensive now that he was on the side of the angels. Also, he wouldn’t leave behind any of his information on Africa if he had actually planned on going there.

Instead, he’d taken off, traveling across America. He’d avoided the major cities; Shadowhunters tended to live there. He’d stuck to the suburbs and rural communities, glamour in place more times than not.

Whenever he needed something, he stole it; his targets were the wealthier ones who could stand to lose a little money. He didn’t have demon blood making him insane anymore’ but he wasn’t entirely good.

He roamed from suburb to suburb, hunting down the surprisingly numerous demons and taking what he needed.

It was on one such foraging expedition that Sebastian had found Duckling in the first place.

-‹◊›-

“What are you doing?”

Sebastian whirled around, his prize clutched tightly in his left hand, his knife in the other. His eyes darted around the immaculate kitchen, searching for the person who had spoken. He could have sworn that no one was home; there were no cars in the driveway.

“Are you one of the faeries?”

The child was on the stairs, crouched behind the railing. She couldn’t have been more than five, with wispy blonde hair and big, blue eyes. She was scared of him, that much was obvious, but he could see that she was fascinated as well.

Her parents had left her alone, and it was getting closer to night. Sebastian felt nothing but disgust for such neglectful parents, although it was more than slightly influenced by his own father, who was absent more often than not because of his plans to take over the world. 

He set the bowl of pasta on the countertop and approached the little girl as slowly as if he was reaching out to an injured animal. Her eyes tracked him the whole way despite the glamour he was wearing; she had the Sight.

He sank down onto his heels at the bottom of the stairs, bringing his eyes to her level. She watched him nervously as she fiddled with the hem of her shirt.

“Faeries don’t exist.” he said.

“Yes they do!” she burst out, suddenly angry. “They say that I’m lying, but I’m not, I’m not!”

Sebastian’s eyes widened at her outburst; it looked as if she was about to have a tantrum. He had no experience with taking care of young children, but he knew that tantrums were bad.

“Sshh, I was lying. Of course they exist.” he said, desperate to keep her from crying.

“Are you a faerie?” she asked, eyes wide.

“No. I’m a Shadowhunter.” he said, unsure why he was explaining himself to her. If only his enemies could see him now, brought low by a five year-old.

“What’s that?” she asked, tilting her head to one side like a bird.

“A monster hunter.” he explained.

She gasped. “Monsters are real too?”

Sebastian had never found little kids to be cute before, but this one was adorable. It was a strange sensation.

He was about to confirm her exclamation when he heard a car pull into the driveway. One of her parents was home.

“I have to go now.” Sebastian said.

“But why?” she asked tearfully. “What if the monsters get me?”

“Monsters like to eat big people, not little ducks like you.” By the Angel, he was teasing her. If someone had told him a month ago that he would ever speak to a five year-old with no agenda whatsoever, he would have laughed in their face. And then killed them.

“So I’m not a monster?” she asked, big eyes hopeful.

Sebastian’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “No. Who told you that you were?”

She hung her head and mumbled “Mommy and Daddy.”

Sebastian had the terrible feeling that his suspicions were about to be confirmed.

“Hold still.” he said, reaching for her. Her eyes widened in fear, and she flinched away from him, but she did as he asked. He gently grabbed her hand and pushed up the sleeve of her shirt. Fingerprint-shaped bruises dotted her arm, and Sebastian had no doubt that her other arm was in the same shape.

Sebastian saw red.

He could hear the turn of a key in the front door. Sebastian had no intention of leaving the girl in her home where she was obviously being abused. He itched to deal out retribution to her parents, but there was no time if he wished to get the girl out undiscovered.

He picked her up, and she let out a soft shriek. He shushed her as he ducked out of the back window through which he had come in.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“We’re leaving,” he said as he ducked out of sight of the house. “I’m going to train you to hunt monsters, okay?”

The little girl nodded. “What about Mommy and Daddy?”

Sebastian ground his teeth together. “They don’t believe in monsters, so they don’t want to learn.”

She seemed to accept that explanation.

Sebastian hotwired a car a few blocks away, and the town was soon in his rearview mirror.

“What’s your name?” he asked the little girl in the backseat.

“Brat.” she said, looking out the window.

“That’s not a name.” Sebastian said.

“It’s what Daddy called me.” she replied. He had the sudden urge to speed back to her home and bludgeon her parents to death with a shovel. His father may not have been the best, what with the encouraging his evil tendencies, but at least Valentine had given him a name. Not that he went by Jonathan anymore, but it was the thought that counted, or so he had heard.

“Then choose a new name.” he suggested. 

She thought for a moment, and then turned her big blue eyes to him. “I’ll be Duckling.”

Sebastian blinked, momentarily taken aback. “That’s an unusual choice. Are you sure?”

She nodded enthusiastically. “Yep. I’m Duckling now.”

-‹◊›-

He’d tracked the vampire’s subjugate to a rural farm in The-Middle-of-Nowhere, Iowa. He had considered sneaking in, but he had figured that he still had a reputation as a bloodthirsty killer among Downworlders. So, he had decided to go through the front door. 

“Hello, anybody home” he shouted, feeling more than slightly homicidal. 

Duckling had been traveling with him for nine months now. He cared for the little girl as if she was his daughter, and they had stolen her. There would be blood to pay if he didn’t kill them all.

The subjugate walked out of an adjacent room.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, annoyance coloring her voice.

“I’m here to see your vampire master,” he said. “Tell him that Jonathan Morgenstern has come to retrieve what is his.”

The darkling paled when she heard his name; his reputation was still intact. “Right this way, sir.”

The subjugate disappeared, and Sebastian followed her down into the basement. The vampire was asleep, which was why he had chosen noon to visit its home. He would take any advantage he could against the monster.

The darkling woke the vampire with a touch to its shoulder. She bent down to whisper its ear, and the vampire went from bleary to alarmed fast enough to give a mundane whiplash. The vampire’s fear visible increased when its eyes landed on Sebastian, helped along by the toothy grin that stretched across his face and the little wave he gave it. He might no longer be evil, but he still enjoyed striking fear in his enemies’ hearts.

With exaggerated slowness, Sebastian pulled a silver chain from his pocket and wrapped it around his wrist. The silver wouldn’t kill it, but it would inconvenience the monster long enough for him to drag it into the sunlight. The vampire swallowed heavily as his subjugate returned to the upstairs kitchen, leaving it alone with a murderous Nephilim.

“How may I be of assistance?” it asked in a thin, reedy voice.

“You stole my child. Did you think I wouldn’t search for her?” he asked, fiddling with the silver chain as he did so.

“I didn’t realize the little girl was yours. I will of course return her to you immediately.” the vampire simpered.

“Why did you take her in the first place?” Sebastian asked. Demons would cause pain, fear, and misery for no reason other than they could, but Downworlders didn’t antagonize mundanes, for fear of Shadowhunter retribution, without good reason.

“I stole a spell from Magnus Bane that required the use of Sighted mortals.” the vampire said.

Sebastian snorted. “You stole from Magnus Bane? Don’t make me laugh. He’s the High Warlock of Brooklyn; no one steals from him.”

“I might have taken it from his trash.” the monster admitted as he led Sebastian into another room.

“Why did you need the mundanes?” he asked, pointedly adjusting the chain on his wrist.

“The spell called for five mortals with the Sight to be sacrificed. The drinker of their blood would gain the ability to summon and control demons without the use of a pentagram and the risk of possible death.” The vampire appeared to be excited to share the spell with him. Maybe it thought that he would spare it if it gave him information. As if. Even when he had been insane Sebastian had been possessive; he hated it when people took what was his. The spell was more than likely to be faulty anyways; warlocks horded whatever spells they could. Magnus wouldn’t have let one that worked slip through his fingers.

“Fascinating.” he said, rather than voice his true feelings.

He was barely able to keep himself from killing the filthy monster there and then when he saw what it had done to the mundanes. Three of them were adults, and the other child couldn’t have been older than two. All five of them were unconscious, and their faces were streaked with tears. They hung from the ceiling by their hands, and their feet were unable to reach the ground. The middle-aged woman and the old man were still bleeding from wounds on their heads while the younger man and the children had dried blood crusted in their hair.

The vampire gestured towards Duckling. “Please, take your child.”

“I’ll need the key to her chains, unless you’d like me to simply break them.” Sebastian pointed out. The vampire was a moron; by killing it he would be doing Downworlder society a favor.

It pulled out a ring of keys and handed them to Sebastian. He allowed some of his rage to show on his face as he took the keys, and the monster cowered away from him.

Sebastian unchained Duckling, feeling his fury increase exponentially at the blood that stained her wrists from where her cuffs had cut her. He could sense an infection beginning to set in from the dirty cuffs, so he used a bit of the angelic ability that Clarissa had unintentionally given him to purge it from her blood. She woke as he was working.

“Daddy, there was a vampire.” she mumbled.

“I know.” he said as he burned the harmful bacteria from her veins.

“I tried to kill it, but it stole my lighter.” she said. The feeling of pride that filled him stunned Sebastian. She had only been with him for nine months, and she was already trying to kill vampires. He was a good influence.

“We’ll have to fix that,” he said, mind made up on how he would kill the monster who had dared to take his daughter. “I’ll be right back.”

The vampire had tried to run, but it had stopped to pack its bags for some reason. He wrapped the chain around its neck and pulled; the lack of air wouldn’t kill it, even with the silver causing it extreme pain. He dragged the thing back down to the basement, a malicious grin stretched across his face.

Duckling was standing by the time he got back. He put the vampire into the chains she had previously been hanging from and pulled out his lighter, handing it to her.

“You can kill it once I’ve freed the others.” he said, stuffing its mouth with the silver to keep it from screaming.

She gave him a bright smile. “Thanks Daddy.”

He quickly removed the other mundanes and set to checking them for diseases while Duckling gleefully set the vampire on fire. It burned like paper; Sebastian had only started curing the little boy of his flu by the time it was ash. Duckling sat and watched him as he fixed the woman’s diabetes and the old man’s cancer.

The little boy was the first to wake, blinking open dark brown eyes, the same shade as his hair. Duckling was at his side in an instant, clinging to him like a limpet.

“What’s wrong?” he asked her.

“The vampire killed his parents. Can we keep him?” she asked, widening her eyes in an attempt to look cute. It was working too.

Sebastian could feel himself caving in the face of her adorableness. Kidnapping was wrong, but the kid would suffer in the foster system because of his Sight. At least if Sebastian raised him the kid would eventually be able to ascend to a Nephilim if he wanted to. Besides, he wouldn’t be the first child Sebastian had kidnapped.

“Fine. But he needs a name, and he had better be potty trained.” he said.

“Thank you Daddy. I’m going to call you Piglet.” she said, addressing the newly dubbed Piglet.

Sebastian sighed at her choice of name. Duckling had an obsession with Winnie the Pooh, and her favorite character was Piglet. If the kid hated the name he could always choose a new one later.

He called 911 to ensure that the other three victims would receive assistance then drove off, his two children in the backseat.

-‹◊›-

Five years later:

Sebastian stood at the gate of the Institute while all three of his kids waited in the car. His youngest daughter, Kitten, was four, and he had found her almost starved to death in an alley in Dallas, Texas. She had caramel colored skin, dark brown eyes, and her black hair was a riot of curls. She was the only one of his children who didn’t have the Sight.

Today was Duck’s tenth birthday, and so he had returned to New York for the first time in five years.

Clarissa answered the gate, and his eyes were drawn first to her swollen stomach and then to the ring on her left hand. She was covered in shimmering gold runes, a sign that she was not just a Shadowhunter. She was obviously surprised to see him.

“Sebastian. Hello. Um, why are you here?” she asked.

“My daughter, Duckling, wishes to become a Nephilim.” he explained, suddenly nervous. What if they turned her away because of his past transgressions? Duckling had been eagerly anticipating her tenth birthday ever since he had set it as the day she could apply for ascension, and to have it taken away would crush her.

However, his sister soon proved his fears to be groundless when she wordlessly opened the gate, welcoming him inside.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the end of the Side Effects series. If anyone wants to write any others in this series, they can feel free. I would love to read any thing people write.


End file.
